glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited His people."

Where can we find a more striking image of the spiritual resurrection Jesus continues to operate in the souls of men? For, though by this miracle He intended to dry the tears of a mother, He wanted also to teach all men to seek in Him, for themselves and others dear to them, but dead to His love, the supernatural life, that the influx of divine grace alone can restore.

us,

In a hidden way the Saviour is always near and tears shed before Him, He receives as prayers; and upon Him they exercise an influence quite different from what they do upon the hearts of our fellow men. Always remember that Jesus went to meet the widow in her sorrow; never forget, O woman, destined more than man to suffering, that it is for thee, who art mother, whose heart is more sensible, whose organism more delicate, He is waiting. Since His coming on earth, thou hast in Him, if thou wilt, an almighty consoler, a friend and confidant in all thy sad hours.

Poor women, poor mothers, what is there

you have not to suffer? Those you love are taken away from you by sickness, by war, by vice, by error! So many dangers for the body, so many for the soul! How numerous are they who are rapt up in the shrouds of incredulity or of a wicked life! How many are dead! With tears in your eyes, you admit the fact. They resist the cry of their conscience, your affectionate pleadings, even the warnings of Providence! All seems lost, and you unable to obtain the health of their body or the conversion of their soul! Take courage, then, and learn how to suffer. Tears shed before God have the power to resuscitate the dead. A day will come, a last hour, when a ray from the heart of Jesus shall shine upon you, when you shall understand, too, the reason of this long and cruel sickness, of this humiliating trial that nothing on earth could sooth. . . . . . A day will come on which this dead youth, your son,—those rapt up in the winding sheets of error, who may be your father, your brother, your husband, shall hear the divine voice. Jesus, then, will manifest Himself to them and to you. He will stretch out His hand or speak the word of authority: and your sick will recover, your

beloved dead will listen again to the voice of reason and religion. They will pray with you, with you they shall go down on their knees before God . . . you will have saved

them.

THE WOMEN WHO SERVE

JESUS.

ESUS was sojourning at Capharnaum, a city on the laughing border of Lake Tiberias. His usual Sabbath task, instruction at the synagogue, being done, He with James and John who, of late, had attached themselves to Him, entered the house of Simon and Andrew.

Simon, whose birthplace was the neighboring Bethsaida, was married here. At his house Jesus considered Himself at home, since intercourse between Him and His disciples had become more and more familiar. To re-establish the wonderful familiarity of the paradisic days of innocence, was one of the objects of the Saviour's coming. From

error and vice He wanted to call fallen humanity to the most intimate alliance with God. But who had fallen deeper than woman, so cruelly abused by egotism and the fierce passions of men?

Now "Simon's wife's mother lay in a fit of fever: and forthwith they tell Him of her. And coming to her he lifted her up, taking her by the hand: and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them."

Sick and bedridden! Indeed, the picture of fallen humanity, and, especially, of the condition into which woman had fallen. Thus from the beginning of His public career, Jesus comes to her, and His disciples asked Him to heal her. Why? Is His own heart not bent upon it? However, the Saviour wants this prayer as a reparation of all the wrong man has done her. "And standing over her, he commanded the fever and it left her."

Standing at the side of the sick woman, Jesus recalls to men the respect due to her whom He has restored to her former dignity. And He commanded the fever. By Thy authority alone, O Lord, this poor patient recovers her health, and comes back to that double life of body and soul that had been